MC_Rack ReadMe
System Requirements
Software: One of the following Windows operating systems is required: 2000, XP, or Vista (English and German versions supported) with the NT file system (NTFS). Other language versions may lead to software errors.
Hardware: (Not required for offline analysis, demo mode, or USB-ME-16-FAI System) The data acquisition board MC_Card. If no MC_Card is present, MC_Rack opens in a simulation mode. A computer with low performance may lead to performance limits more often; therefore, MCS recommends an up-to-date computer. Please note that there are sometimes hardware incompatibilities of the MC_Card and computer components; or that an inappropriate computer power supply may lead to artifact signals. Please contact your local retailer for more information on recommended computer hardware.
Important!
MC_Rack 3.5 supports only data (.mcd) files recorded with MC_Rack 1.7 or later versions.
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.10?
- Bugfix: Minor bugs in data acquisition triggering have been fixed .
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.8?
- Bugfix: Incompatibility problems caused by certain ActiveX elements resolved.
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.6?
- Triggered display is now enabled for the raster plot.
- Bugfix: Axes did not change when moving the range slider with no data present in the display.
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.5?
- New color map for false color plot: Reversed Jet plot, i. e. from Red to Blue instead of Blue to Red.
- Improved Spike Parameter Display: Number plot option, i. e. displaying the current parameter value (for example the signal rate) as a number.
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.4?
- Bugfix: The ASCII export function of the spike overlay display has been repaired.
- Bugfix: Spike Sorter: Spike events that crossed the unit markers near the end of the markers were not reliably sorted. This has been repaired.
What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.3?
The new operating system Windows Vista is now supported.What's new in MC_Rack Version 3.5.1?
Bugfix: The ASCII export function and some other minor bugs have been repaired.What's New in Version 3.5?
- Improved Spike Sorter: Longer spike cutouts of up to 1.5 s are now supported, ideal for extracting spontaneous field potential activity or cardiac signals.
- Improved Analyzer: New 10/90 (or 20/80 or 30/70 %) option for extracting the Slope: If this option is enabled, the slope is extracted from a linear fit of the data between 10/90 % of the maximum and minimum response inside the ROI. This feature allows a reliable slope extraction on multiple channels in parallel.
- Improved Spike Analyzer Display: New graphical representation options such as horizontal step mode. You can choose between showing markers, lines, and both. The performance of the display is now greatly improved, too.
- New measure tool for Spike Analyzer Display and Parameter Display: You can display a horizontal or vertical bar for displaying the x and y value of the intersection point, or for calculating the period between two data points.
- Operating MC_Rack without administrator rights is now fully supported.
What's New in Version 3.4?
- New Spike Analyzer: With the new event-based Spike Analyzer, you can now continuously (without time bins) extract the spike rate and interspike interval (ISI). Spike rate and ISI can be graphed online during the experiment, saved together with the data file, and exported in ASCII or graphics file format. The unit information generated by the Spike Sorter is fully supported. The new Spike Analyzer is especially useful for monitoring the spiking activity of a neuronal preparation, or the beating rhythm of a cardiac preparation.
- Improved channel maps for data displays: A new sample channel map for HexaMEAs with vertical and horizontal offsets is provided. This feature is especially useful for MEAs with electrode grids that do not follow a plain rectangular scheme.
What's New in Version 3.3.3?
The improvements of this version were mainly focused on an enhanced user friendliness and program performance. MCS strongly recommends to upgrade older MC_Rack versions to this version.
Improved recording options:- Support of unlimited data file size
- Stop the recording on a trigger
- The Replayer speed is now only limited by the CPU performance. Also, the added slider feature allows a more convenient browsing of the data file.
- New Reverse Display option: Changes background color of data displays from white to black. Especially convenient for retina recordings, which require a darkroom.
- New scaling controls: Up and down buttons for changing the y-axis range allow a more convenient zooming of the data.
- Several MEA application examples were used for explaining MC_Rack features near to typical applications for the MEA System.
- You will find demo data files discussed in the MC_Rack help in the Tutorial folder on the installation volume. Also, we provide rack files that can be used as a template for your application instead of setting up a rack configuration from scratch.
- Automatic MC_Card driver installation and update
- Improved program stability and fixes of minor bugs
What's New in Version 3.2.2?
Bugfixes
Especially if you have observed problems with performance limits and software freezing, you should upgrade to version 3.2.2 because this version fixes bugs that can limit the performance of the software.What's New in Version 3.2.1?
- Spike Sorter You can now extract only the time stamps of spike events as single data points. This is very useful if you are interested in the spike rate or spatial distribution of spikes but not in the waveform information.
Bugfixes
It is extremely important that all users upgrade to version 3.2.1 because MC_Rack 3.2.1 fixes several bugs.What's New in Version 3.2?
- Full support of MEA120 System with up to 128 recording channels: View and manage two MEAs at once.
- Improved Analyzer: Define the region of interest conveniently with the mouse, directly in the display.